3
$\begingroup$

I'd like to ask a tie-in question after this answer on Worldbuilding.

We surmise that Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was added to Santa’s kit in 1939 as a general upgrade to deal with the emergence of commercial airliners and international air traffic.

Besides having a red visibility light and acting as a radar transponder, what other features might be part of the package?

$\endgroup$
1
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ The content of the question elaborates on the specific idea in this case, @mins $\endgroup$
    – JDługosz
    Commented Jan 4, 2017 at 7:24

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
10
$\begingroup$

We've had a couple of meta discussions about humor already: here and here. So far it seems that we're not very keen on it, but individual cases can always be different.

Personally, I can absolutely see how we could help people from worldbuilding or other sites with questions about plausibility, technical accuracy etc. and I think questions like that would be very welcome. On the other hand, questions that don't care about the technical aspects as long as the answer is witty or entertaining wouldn't be on-topic here. That's all just my own opinion, of course.

In your case, if you're asking what navigation or avionics equipment/features would be legally required - or at least commonly found - on an early airliner then I'd say the question is fine. But if you're asking for jokes or puns then I don't think it would get off the ground (ba-dum ching!).

$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ I'd say this specific question would be ok on worldbuilding, as it's a site about fiction, but if posted on aviation it should be closed as off topic. $\endgroup$
    – jwenting
    Commented Jan 6, 2017 at 7:19
3
$\begingroup$

If you're asking a specific question about how something would technically work, it might work here, even if it is in the context of a humorous situation. However, just asking for a list of humorous answers to a situation probably won't fit in well at Aviation.

In the case of this particular question, it seems that it would be both too broad and off-topic here. Incidentally, a question similar to this has come up on Aviation Meta before and the consensus seemed to be that questions about science fiction/fantasy scenarios belonged at Worldbuilding rather than here. One thing you could do rather than asking here would be to post a link to the Worldbuilding question in Aviation chat (The Hangar) and invite the Aviation regulars to chime in over there.

Another alternative would be to post a question on Aviation Meta that links to the question and suggests you want input from the Aviation.SE community, but posted under the guise of a question in order to be on topic on Meta. Oh, wait... :P

$\endgroup$
2
$\begingroup$

I don't know if that would fly here (pun intended). But on Christmas Eve I noticed that the AvHerald put up a story about a lithium battery fire / smoke in the cockpit on Santa's sleigh.

You might also ask about the aerodynamics of reindeer antlers!

$\endgroup$
1
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Just imagine what the wave drag must be like on those reindeer at those speeds... not to mention the temperatures along the leading edges. $\endgroup$
    – reirab
    Commented Jan 4, 2017 at 6:20

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .